Andy Nyman's golden rules of auditions

1. Before you enter the audition room, remind yourself; they want you to solve their casting problem, they want to give you the job.

2. Be brave - make a strong decision about the character, it'll make you stand out and show that you think about your work. It'll also give the director something to direct.

3. For film and TV auditions, always learn the scenes you're given - it'll allow you to make eye contact with the people auditioning you and for their camera to really 'see' you.

4. Wear clothes that hint at the character you are autitioning for.

5. When working on speeches and scenes for auditions, rehearse them out loud. It will take away the fear of speaking them for the first time when auditioning.

6. Don't lie on your CV. It'll come back and bite you.

7. When you audition, you're not just auditioning for a job. You are sowing seeds for your entire career. Make the right impact and a good director or casting agentwill remember you for years.

8. An audition is also an opportunity for you to discover what 'they' would be like to work with.

9. Commercial auditions are a law unto themselves - leave your ego at the door and just go for it.

10. When auditioning for a part, if they ask 'what did you think of the script?', say something positive - otherwise why are you auditioning?

11. To actually get an audition is hard. Don't underestimate how many actors have tried to get into that room and couldn't. Make it count.

12. If you get down to the final two for a job, more often than not you won't get a call to say you didn't get it - you just don't hear. It's one of the cruellest parts of the business, but it happens every day.

13. If you haven't worked for ages and they ask what you have been up to, tell the truth, but tell it in an unembarrassed way. 'I've been pretty quiet workwise, but I've just spent six months learning to salsa/reading plays/building my website' - or whatever you've been doing. Think about what your answer will be before you go in.

14. Be careful of auditioning for the jobs you don't want. Once you're acting in the audition room, you start to feel you could actually make something of the role and may get seduced into doing a job you never wanted. Be strong - if you don't want the job, don't go in for it.

15. There are a hundred reasons as to why you won't get the job - very often you're just 'not quite right'. That doesn't mean you're a bad actor.

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